Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers

See Our Highly-Customizable Range of Designs for Industrial and Utility Applications

Valutech offers a variety of shell and tube heat exchangers for general manufacturing industries and utility applications in institutions such as universities and hospitals. We represent industry-leading manufacturers to provide heat transfer devices individually designed to ensure application compatibility including: condensate coolers, high temperature hot water/steam generators,liquid chillers, vapour and steam condensers, and chemical process equipment, among others. The simple design of a shell and tube heat exchanger makes it an ideal cooling solution for a wide variety of applications; for example, one common application is the cooling of hydraulic fluid and oil in engines, transmissions and hydraulic power packs. Valutech also offers a complete range of shell and tube heat exchangers for steam heating, oil cooling, and other industrial processing applications, as well as stainless-steel shell and tube heat exchangers to meet strict hygienic requirements in industries such as food & beverages, pharmaceuticals, and personal care; for more information on these options, please click the respective box to the right:

Demanding modern manufacturing processes use heat exchangers that require an equally diverse range of construction materials. Our partners have full capability to work with carbon steel, stainless, and titanium, as well as nickel or copper alloys, and every custom-fabricated unit is manufactured under strictly controlled standards of workmanship to ensure conformity with ASME Code Section VIII Div 1 and all other relevant pressure vessel codes. For a full list of available materials and the standards with which our products comply with, please refer to the tables below:

Codes and Standards

  • ASME
  • TEMA
  • CRN
  • API
  • Coast Guard
  • HEI

Materials of Construction

  • Carbon Steel
  • Cast Iron
  • Stainless Steel
  • Inconel
  • Brass
  • Copper
  • Cupro-Nickel
  • Incolloy
  • Hastelloy
  • Alloy 20
  • Titanium
  • Monel

Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers

Find out more about our design capabilities below:

Shell and tube heat exchangers are the most common class of heat exchanger design in oil refineries and other large chemical processes, and are suited for higher-pressure applications. As the name implies, this type of heat exchanger consists of a shell (a large pressure vessel) containing tubes. One fluid runs through the tubes, and another fluid flows within the shell and over the tubes to transfer heat between the two fluids. The set of tubes is called a tube bundle, and may be composed of several shapes and styles of tubes including plain, longitudinally finned, etc. The diagram below illustrates the principal components of a shell and tube heat exchanger, based upon the BEU configuration:

Two fluids of different starting temperatures flow through the heat exchanger. Heat transfer occurs when the heat from the hotter fluid is transferred to the other via conduction through the tube walls and convection within fluid flow; the fluids can be either liquids or gases on either the shell or the tube side. The large surface area afforded by the outer surface of a large number of tubes within the shell creates a volumetrically efficient heat transfer device; this can be used for heating and cooling process fluids using dedicated heating/cooling sources or by using waste fluids to improve process efficiency.  There are often baffles within the shell that direct flow in such a way that the fluid takes a thermally longer path through the shell side to improve volumetric efficiency. These are generally attached to the tube bundle rather than the shell in order ensure that the bundle is still removable for maintenance.

A shell and tube heat exchanger supplied to a tallow producer to cool bleached fat exiting a deodorizer at 450°F using cooling water. It features a specially-designed expansion joint to handle the large thermal load.

A shell and tube heat exchanger that was provided to a greenhouse provider for a steam-water heating application.

Heat exchangers with only one phase (liquid or gas) on each side can be called one-phase or single-phase heat exchangers; conversely, two-phase heat exchangers can be used to vaporize a liquid (boilers), or condense a vapour into its liquid phase (condenser), with the phase change usually occurring on the shell side. Boilers in steam engine locomotives are typically large, usually cylindrically-shaped shell and tube heat exchangers. In large power plants with steam-driven turbines, shell and tube surface condensers are used to condense exhaust steam from the turbine into condensate water, which is then recycled back to a steam generator. Counter current heat exchangers are most efficient because they allow for the highest possible temperature difference between the hot and cold streams at any given point within the unit. Further refinements in design such as multi-pass and U-Tube units improve efficiency but are more fragile and expensive. Often, multiple heat exchangers in series can be used to accommodate the duty of a single large unit. For more information on specialized shell and tube heat exchangers for specific applications, please select the style you are looking for from the options below:

Sanitary Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers | Valutech Inc

Shell and Tube Steam Heaters

Sanitary Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers | Valutech Inc

Sanitary Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Sanitary Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers | Valutech Inc

Shell and Tube Oil Coolers

Sanitary Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers | Valutech Inc

Industrial Process Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers

With the right choice of materials, shell and tube heat exchangers can also be used to cool or heat other mediums, such as swimming pool water or charge air. One of the notable advantages of using a shell and tube heat exchanger is that they are often easy to service, particularly with models where a floating tube bundle (where the tube plates are not welded to the outer shell) is available. Valutech also offers shell-and-tube style: intercoolers, aftercoolers, pressure vessels, chillers, and condensers, as well as replacement tube bundles for all of our models.

Tube Material Selection

To be able to transfer heat effectively, the tube material should have good thermal conductivity. Heat is transferred from a hot fluid to a cold fluid through the tubes, creating a temperature difference across the wall of the tubes. Thermal stresses occur during operation due to the tendency of tubes to expand and contract with temperature fluctuations; this in addition to any stress from high fluid pressures. The tube material also should be compatible with both the shell and tube side fluids for long periods under the operating conditions (temperatures, chemical compatibility, pH, etc.) to minimize deterioration. All of these requirements call for careful selection of strong, thermally-conductive, corrosion-resistant, high quality tube materials. Typically, metals such as aluminium, copper alloy, stainless steel, carbon steel, non-ferrous copper alloy, Inconel, nickel, Hastelloy and titanium are used; fluoropolymers such as perfluoro alkoxy alkane (PFA) and fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) are also used as tubing materials due to their high resistance to extreme temperatures. Poor choice of tube material could result in a leak through a tube between the shell and tube sides causing fluid cross-contamination and dangerous pressure fluctuations.

Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Nomenclature

Valutech works with industry leading shell-and-tube heat exchanger manufacturers to provide individually designed units to suit fluid heat transfer applications across virtually all industries. Regardless of manufacturer, there are several common design styles that are described using a standardized three-letter notation system designated by the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association (TEMA). The three letters designate the front (stationary) head, the shell style, and the rear head style; the rear head style determines whether the tube bundle is fixed (welded) to the shell or if it free-floating. While fixed tube bundle constructions are more economical to build, they necessitate chemical cleaning of the outside of the tubes since they cannot be mechanically accessed, and they are not suitable for high-temperature and/or high- pressure duties where thermal expansion is a concern. The following TEMA styles are our most common offerings:

The styles in the above diagrams are known as BEM, and BEU, respectively. The ‘B’ front head refers to the bonnet style integral cover; this is the most economical style of front header in terms of capital cost, and is suitable for high pressure duties due to only having one seal. The bonnet style requires disturbance to piping in order to remove the header and access the tube bundle, and is therefore suited to clean tube-side fluids.

The style shown in the BEU diagram contains a pass partition, as illustrated by the solid light blue line. The ‘M’ style of cover is simply the rear head equivalent of the ‘B’ front head. The ‘E’ shell refers to the single- pass shell type, and is the most common style of shell for industrial applications. The ‘U’ style of rear header refers to the U-Tube construction shown above, where the tubes are floating relative to the rear header; this design has a very tight bundle-to-shell clearance, but it cannot have pure counterflow with an ‘E’ style shell, and must have an even number of tube passes. For more information on the BEU configuration and BEM configuration, please click on the respective diagram.

Welding, Tube Bending, and Other Machining

All our welders are ASME, AWS and API Qualified with the ability to weld carbon, low and high alloy steels, nickel and nickel alloys, copper alloys, chrome-moly, Hastelloy, Incoloy, Inconel, Duplex, and all grades of stainless steel.  Our shop has the equipment and expertise in the following welding methods:

Welding Capability

  • Gas Metal Arc (GMAW) MIG
  • Gas Tungsten Arc (GTAW) TIG
  • Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) FCA
  • Submerged Arc Welding (SAW)
  • Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) Stick
  • Weld Overlay

Our craftsmen have an average of 20 years experience in the precision fabrication of custom body flanges, tube-sheets, baffles and miscellaneous components up to 30″ in diameter.  We have the ability to shear and bend plates up to ½″ thick.

Our manufacturers use high-precision automated machinery, capable of drilling deep holes to an extremely high tolerance.  Tube-sheets, baffles, and flanges are drilled using CNC equipment for accuracy and speed, and shop engineers program the equipment directly from the CAD fabrication drawings. Qualified machinists then set the piece in place and monitor the drilling process.

We have the in-house capability to bend tubes for “U-bundles”.  Our machinery and operators are skilled at bending all tube grades and sizes to a specified radius while taking into consideration reduction in tube wall thickness.

Thermal Rating

All thermal design is performed by our in-house process engineers, utilizing Aspen Tech Thermal Rating software and custom-developed programming.  We operate with the understanding that correct and thorough input is required for accurate results — our engineers use software tools to perform the design based on experience and knowledge of thermal properties. We have the capability to design all major industrial shell and tube heat exchanger equipment, including single-phase, multi-phase, condensers, evaporators, and other specialty units. We can provide complete thermal design, as well as rating or review of your calculations for value-added engineering solutions.

Mechanical Design and 3D Rendering

We continue to use the Aspen Mechanical Suite, which draws on the long heritage of the B-JAC Teams software to optimize design by recognizing the interaction of key components.  This, in conjunction with our in-house custom programmed mechanical software, provides us with the ability to minimize material usage to produce an efficient and cost-effective shell and tube heat exchanger designs.

The design and fabrication of highly complicated shell and tube heat exchangers and pressure vessels is streamlined with the use of 3D design software.  This method reduces both lead times and cost by accurately dimensioning components with challenging geometric features while verifying clearances prior to the start of fabrication.  The customer also benefits from the use of this model when creating piping plans and determining other special requirements of their plants.

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